Warriors’ Steve Kerr jokes to Cavaliers’ David Blatt: ‘He just became a much better coach’

Kerr was happy to get two out of the three, and the one that got away was Blatt, a decorated coach in Europe who got the Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coaching job. Now, Blatt will be coaching LeBron James.

“It was pretty shocking that three weeks later, he’s coaching LeBron James,” Kerr said Sunday. “I think he’s a great coach, and he’ll do very well. And as I told him, he just became a much better coach two days ago.”

Kerr said after he got the Warriors job, his agent, Mike Tannenbaum called him to ask if he had interest in a fellow client in Blatt.

Kerr had admired Blatt from afar.

“He’s impressive,” Kerr said. “I’ve read all about it. I’ve seen him, watching European games and stuff. He had great reputation.”

Kerr and Blatt ended up meeting for breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey during a layover before Blatt’s flight from Los Angeles International Airport back to Israel.

Blatt ended up the Cavaliers’ choice over Gentry and Tyronn Lue, who joined Cleveland as the associate head coach.

The Warriors got Gentry, who laughed when asked about James.

“That would have very interesting,” Gentry said.

“I like it a lot as long as he’s in the East. As long as he stays East, he can bounce to any team he wants to. Just don’t come out West, OK?”